I guess I'd have to say, as long as he was happy, he did what he should have done. I really have no sympathy for someone who shoots a deer(of any kind) and then complains about it. Button bucks can be pretty hard to protect. The problem is sometimes you just CAN'T tell.
I personally believe that anyone who is inclined to shoot antlerless deer, shouldn't fret too much about the sex of the deer. The reason is, most good deer management practices dictate that a certain amount of does be harvested right along with antlered bucks, to keep the herd balanced. IMO, if you start passing antlerless deer because you can't be sure if it's a young buck or not, you start hampering the process of balancing the herd. I've read some research that seems to show that an old doe who manages not to get bred in one year, may not even breed the next year. It seems maybe nature tries to take care of this problem. You see, speaking in the terms of herd health, a doe who doesn't reproduce, is just wasting mother nature's food supply for the viable reproducing deer in the herd. There's only so much food out there, and well you get the picture.

I hope you that have blasted this guy for shooting immature deer, understand that this gentleman is a valuable tool for stabilizing deer numbers, just as you are. Someone wrote that,...it's easy to kill fawns, there's no sport in that.....
How do you know? Just because you happen to be a more skilled hunter doesn't mean everyone else is. C'mon! There's a reason why every person who straps a treestand and a bow on his back doesn't kill a pope and young buck every year. Maybe harvesting a young deer, is a challenge for this guy. There's no shame in that. Maybe he'll get better at it and maybe he won't, but blasting him and putting him down certainly won't help.


Just my 2 cents

GH

I love animals.......they're delicious!

Edited by - Grasshopper13 on 11/11/2002 06:06:33